Incline

“Incline your ears” sounds gentle, but it is a direct challenge to the way most of us live. We say we want peace, wisdom, and healthy community, yet we often move through the day like we know better than God. Psalm 78 names a different path: humility as an active posture, a decision to bend our attention and our choices toward what is trustworthy and timeless.

In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about what Psalm 87  looks like in real life and in real leadership. As reading habits decline and attention gets fragmented, they make the case for biblical literacy that is personal, practical, and lived, not outsourced to a single hour on Sunday. They also push back on the false split between “heady” scripture study and embodiment. Whether you learn by reading, listening, or hearing the word spoken aloud, the real measure is application: do our priorities, budgets, conflicts, and relationships actually line up with what we say we believe? Listen in for the full conversation.

Read For Faith, the companion devotional.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Naming The Gap Without Shame

Bishop Wright 0:00

The psalmist is in many ways inviting us to remember who we are, but also asking us to notice the gaps in how we construct community individually and organizationally. In what way have we not inclined our ears to God? And to name that gap without condemnation and shame, but to name that gap so that we can find our on-ramp back into who we say we are. And who we say we are is based on who God says God is.

What It Means To Incline

Melissa 0:54

This week's devotion you called incline, based on and inspired by Psalm 78.

Bishop Wright 1:03

That's right. That's right. Uh yeah. So here's how it goes incline your ears to the words of my mouth. God says that through the pen of the psalmist. This simple prompt is the center of what humility means and is the measure and delight of the faithful person. To incline is to stretch out towards something, to bend and be biased towards it. To incline to God's word is to tune one's life for harmony with God. When we incline our ears to God's word, we don't end up with a bulging bag of prohibitions. We find that our burdens are lightened. Our appetite for chaos is reoriented to peace, and our imaginations are enlivened.

Melissa 1:57

So this is a psalm. Clearly, this is fabulous because it's speaking to me on a kind of like a transcendent kind of level. So why did you particularly what resonates most with this passage for you, Bishop?

Scripture In A Post-Literate Age

Bishop Wright 2:12

You know, I'm I'm continuing to think about that we're moving into a post-literate society by the people uh who who sort of prognosticate about these things. We're we're we're somehow reading less. Um, the average person is reading less. Um, and uh, you know, I I'm a person who has found uh a great amount of uh of direction, wisdom, guidance from from scripture, from the written word, uh, from going deep there. I've found something out about myself, I've found something out about my neighbor, I've found something out about the mind and characteristic of God. And so I just want to continue to commend however that happens uh you know, to people that that they actually know scripture for themselves and for those who do go to church, not to sort of overdepend on what happens on Sunday for an hour and a half, but let Sunday be a celebration of sort of your study and your walk with God through the week. And so the psalmist is reminding the community that the center for us is that we bend towards God, that that our sumum bonum, that our our our most good, uh is to tune our individual lives, our organization, our community with God's purposes. And so to do that, we've got to listen. And in and I I also think that, you know, uh, you know, perhaps listening to one another seems increasingly more difficult. And uh, and we've it at least in the circles that I that I travel in, I mean, really listen, sit down and consider um uh rather than just simply arguing. And so uh here is the psalmist uh reminding us that who we are as the faithful of God are people who take the time to listen, weigh, consider, bend our lives toward God says. And then ultimately, uh, that is what guides us uh in the laws, spiritual laws, uh which are like lanes on a highway, that lead us to new insights about God on our neighbor and ourselves.

Melissa 4:22

Bishop, I've got so many thoughts. In one aspect, you're talking about literacy, right? Just the ability to read. And the original thought I had, I said, yes, and you know, the printing press wasn't prolific until, you know, what the middle of the second millennia of of the common era. And so I am curious though, like reading the Bible is one thing. Yet the reading of the Bible is kind of a heady thing. Like, there's not really much integration unless someone is practicing embodiment.

Embodying The Word Beyond Reading

Bishop Wright 4:56

That's right. Well, you know, it's interesting that in this post-Elightenment world that we live in, we've bifurcated the, you know, we've sort of set polarized those two ideas one-on-one, you know, the the embodied and the sort of heady stuff. Um perhaps uh we have uh a misinterpretation of Descartes uh uh you know, uh to blame for that. But but you know, this is all about lived reality. Um it's it's all about not only hearing what God says, reading what God says, having it read over you, um, but but also embodying it. You know, I I actually, you know, my wife was a great voice, a great speaking voice, and uh and she loves to read. And so some and and I love to drive. And so oftentimes when we're on a long drive, we were just in the panhandle of Florida a couple days ago. Uh, she read to me. And so it's not just about the reading, because I also understand that uh uh there there are some of us who don't have uh sight any longer or for whom reading is difficult. I mean, whatever your your deal is, I'm I've always been an oral learner anyway. I love to have things spoken so that I can begin to parse them and think about them, deeply consider them. Um, so it's not about that, but it is about application. Uh and I think this is this is what the psalmist is saying is that it's the application who actually decides what you what you really are about, right? So it doesn't say get get it perfect. This is incline. So can I prioritize God's word?

Melissa 6:25

I'm also mindful of the fact that this isn't just an individual act of listening and discernment, but it also is something that I don't know that we do very uh intentional work around is discerning communally, in communion, you know, in uh communion with one another.

Generational Memory And Community Purpose

Bishop Wright 6:42

That's right. That's right. And and so when the psalmist is writing this, and in this group of psalms, I love it because they're they're thinking generationally. If you read through the psalm, it's it's make sure that you tell the next generation, but not just tell them something intellectual, tell them what you have learned as you trusted God over the decades God has given you of life, right? So this is also about keeping God at the center of the community. This is also about keeping the community on track, keeping God's priorities and purpose at the center of who we say we are. Remember, this is a group of people who recall the fact that God took up extraordinary effort on their behalf, right? Not because they were good or holy or righteous or anything, just because God decided to break the back of Pharaoh, right, and show up and exert power in a unique way. And that becomes a centerpiece of this community. And so the writers downstream of that event want to keep that at the center. And so we incline our ears and our hearts uh to the one who showed up on our behalf uniquely and who has made us, right, for the releasing of this revelation that we're calling God. Y

Melissa 7:55

So, Bishop, you you are a kind of a guru on leadership. I know you're an incredible student of it.

Bishop Wright 8:01

Well, yeah, student is better to say, yeah.

Melissa 8:03

As a student and practitioner, I'm I'm just I'm curious about the idea of leadership today. You know, we've got incredible examples of authoritative and patriarchal leadership. Then we also have more of a uh participatory, collaborative um forms. And so I'm curious about the leader of a community.

Bishop Wright 8:26

Yeah.

Melissa 8:26

How do they listen to the group or the community of listeners? And how do they discern well together?

Bishop Wright 8:34

Well, yeah, you know, so I mean, just really quickly, so I I come from a school of uh of leadership thought that says there's no such thing as leaders. There are only people who exert leadership behavior, and that leadership behavior uh can be ubiquitous in its best sort of um configuration. It is ubiquitous, everybody taking up uh, you know, a leadership activity. And so the leadership activity that I hear, the psalmist putting at the center of the community is what is our purpose? What is unique about us? And then the person who's exerting leadership is the steward of that. So uh he or she, uh, through behavior, through what they write, through how they show up, is saying, this is our purpose, that God is at the center of us, and that our purpose, therefore, what animates us, so it's not subjective, it's in, it's entirely uh objective in terms of how we've constructed ourselves as a community, is all about God, to live in harmony with God. And so I see uh the psalmist exerting leadership in that way and trying to do the next piece of work uh of leaders, uh, those who exert leadership, and that is to mobilize people. So not only to give them an idea, fine-sounding words, perhaps even eloquence, but also to say we mobilize, in other words, we make decisions, yes and no's, uh, and now and not now, based on who we say we are. My wife does work around um uh organizational alignment. She does what they what they call uh integrity audits. And so when the psalmist is having this conversation with the people, um, the psalmist is in many ways inviting us to remember who we are, but also asking us to notice the gaps uh in how we construct community individually and organizationally. So, in in what way have we not inclined our ears to God? And to name that gap without condemnation and shame, but to name that gap so that we can find our on-ramp back into who we say we are. And so it's it's in many ways uh way past literacy. It's down to the core of who we say we are, and who we say we are is based on who God says God is. And so I love how God shows up in this psalm, and that God is that gentle parent, perhaps even teacher, uh, trying to give us, commend to us that which is trustworthy and timeless. And what is trustworthy and timeless is live in harmony with me, and I will show you a peace beyond your understanding. Is it free? Is it microwave popcorn? No, it's a process.

Melissa 11:44

In this act of stretching of the world.

Worship As A Life Worth Living

Melissa 11:45 Bishop Wright 11:47

All throughout, as you as you know. Look, here's the first conflict. Here's the first conflict. The first conflict is that uh we would never say it out loud, but many of us live this way. I know better than God. Right? So that's why I say to incline our ears is to bend our life towards uh, you know, what God desires for us. And that requires some humility, right? Because uh we want to say, you know, we want to sing the old song, I did it my way. And if we don't sing the song, we want to live that way, we know best about money, we know best about conflict, we know best about marriage, we know best about parenting, and on and on and on and on and on. Again, we don't say that, but in many ways, we decide to do that. And when we run up against the cost of doing it's God's ways, then what we do is we round off the edges to make it palatable. So the conflict is always present, the tension, the contestation is always there. But wiser, you know, wiser for it's wiser for us. Uh, I mean, and look, this is what worship is. Let's let's get down to the nitty-gritty of this. The worship uh uh that the uh psalmist is inviting us into is not Sunday morning for an hour. Uh, it is to make uh to make sure that we understand that God is worth it all. That's worship, and that we live in a way that bears witness to that statement, that God is worth it, right? And then you and I get to embody that. And look, we we're talking about God and all this fancy highfalutin' stuff, but people are making these kinds of decisions every day. They're they're running risks, uh, they're doing all kinds of behaviors and non-behaviors because they think something is worth it. The athlete is training now because he or she thinks that the glory of winning the prize is worth it. Uh, you know, there's someone somewhere writing a dissertation right now who is laboring, you know, in their office, you know, in early mornings or late nights because they think the attainment of the uh of the PhD is worth the struggle. And so so this is what human beings do. Um uh the doctor is is, you know, moves her practice from an affluent part of town uh to serve the people on the fringes who can barely pay, because somehow, in her personal calculation that she learned uh by watching Jesus do his thing, uh, that it's worth it in a way that is hard to measure, uh, to give your great gifts to some folks who can't pay you market price. So so that's all we're talking about. The psalmist is just saying, hey, it's worth it.

A Community Firewall Against False Faith

Melissa 14:28

Yeah. So, Bishop, I guess my last question is about that stretch and the agency. Last week we talked about the matchless power of God and um owning our agency and practicing it. So, what happens when there is conflict between, say, a leader who is established themselves as, say, spiritual in leadership or not, and someone or many people in the community are feeling like, I don't know that this is aligned with what I'm hearing from God.

Bishop Wright 14:58

Well, this is why it's important. Um, what when the when the psalmist says uh incline your ears, it's not talking to just one person, it's talking to the community. So, what I hope is is that um uh because individual uh people who have formal authority, who we call leaders, um are not immune to going astray, are not immune to arrogance, are not immune to greed and all the other things that plague all of us. You know, what is it? Absolute power absolutely corrupts. So what we want is the best case scenario is that we want um the whole community to incline their ears. I mean, this is what I'm hoping for right now, is we see these grotesque sort of displays of something that somebody is calling Christianity, which bears no resemblance uh to uh to what we read in the Bible. What we hope and pray, and I'm working for, and you are working for, is to distribute uh what Jesus actually says in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and raise up a group of people who can say, uh, nope, uh, that does not look like God. I mean, I think when the psalmist is trying to say, incline your ears, right, to the genuine article, that's also a firewall for all that is artificial, right? It's so that the members of the community can say, nope, nope, nope, nope, that's not the genuine article. And of course, this uh you're talking about seasons and process, and it takes sometimes pendulums to swing before we recognize these things. And of course, the the sort of ancient uh history of uh of the Jewish people, certainly the Hebrew people, and lots of people uh bear witness to the fact that people can rise up on charisma and people can rise up on wealth, and ultimately their practices are really just selfish practices, and they don't bear out the wisdom and harmony of God. And hopefully in those moments is when the community can say back, ah, we may have been seduced or deluded for a moment, but that's actually not the real thing. The real thing is when we take care of each other, the real thing is when we bend the will of the organization and the individuals to those practices which are life-giving for the most people, right? And not just a subset.

Melissa 17:14

I, Bishop, am inclined to believe you.

Thanks, Ways To Follow, Closing

Melissa 17:19

Bishop, thank you, and listeners, thank you for tuning in to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright, or by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Please subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back with you next week.